Downtown

When someone says "downtown" I tend to think of daily grind, hustling of people and cars, crowded streets, busy offices and businesses, and strange people that fit into the landscape of the city.  Over time downtown has become about accessibility, convenience, and getting among people.

Fort Myers has a lot of historic overtones, but there is a coming out in the city as well.  The high rises that dot the area are new and flashy in comparison to the old, historic district.  The historical element is still prominent in the city and the city has worked it well, with old style street lamps, brick pavers on the street, and storefronts that look like they came from the nineteenth century.  

There is a lot of foot traffic in the city.  Everything is within walking distance and it seems easier to get around by walking than to get your car into the traffic.  This is helpful in minimizing the level of traffic, getting people to do business locally, and to get people involved.

Fort Myers also has some features that applauds the days of old.  The fantastic buildings, the old courthouse with the words, "The First Order of Man is Justice", the ancient clock at the end of Monroe Street, The statues of Edison, Ford, and Firestone in the park, the charm of Main Street, and the nostalgia of antique storefronts all add to the time honored aura of historic preservation that is Fort Myers.

Fort Myers is probably more wealthy now than in the days of the original development.  There are more people, more businesses, and wealthy people who reside here part of the year.  In the days of Edison, there were very few people in comparison and with people comes business, with business comes money.  This could cause Fort Myers to become less sustainable if people were to take from the milieu instead of trying to preserve and maintain it.  Part of the benefit of maintaining historic values is that people are less likely to draw more out of their surroundings. 

Energy

Energy is pretty expensive, but that may be a good thing.  If it were cheap people would misuse energy.  We would be more careless about running our dryers too long, turning our air conditioning too low, leaving lights and fans on when we leave the room.  Conservation would be only for tree huggers.  

Conservation is not a dirty word, it is the smart way to handle the issue of energy use.  We depend too much on foreign oils and it costs us dearly, we need to find a way to conserve energy and make it "hip" so that young people learn the value of conservation as well.

Jimmy Cardigan had it right, as president he could have thrown conservation out the window, let taxpayers pay the light bill-not Jimmy's problem!  It is very honorable that he chose the more conservative roads to follow and led his team down that road as well.  As a child, in upstate New York, I remember my mother buying us warm pajamas and slippers, we had layers of warm blankets on our beds, and she insisted that we put on a sweatshirt and keep the thermostat down. She was a smart lady!

I firmly believe in the benefits of alternative fuels.  If I were to win the lottery I would donate, invest, and do whatever in support the development of renewable energy and biofuels.  I did a research paper on the feasibility of solar energy in America and through the research discovered that it, at least at this point, is not very feasible-it is too expensive.  I would invest in research to make the solar panels more affordable and durable.  

I feel that wind energy is a missed value in this area.  We could build wind turbines in rural farm lands, along highways, maybe even out in the gulf where it isn't seen by tourists.  Then of course, biofuels.  What a great way to reuse our waste!!! What a great way to reduce our dependence on foreign oils!!!! What a reduction of CO2 in the environment!!! (the amount of CO2 from the exhaust of biofuels are not any higher than the plant would've produced through natural decomposition).  

The steps that I could take tomorrow to reduce my carbon footprint is to put up a clothesline instead of using my dryer.  Most days that could be done, unless it is raining there is no excuse for not taking advantage of the climate to dry our clothes.  In the next five years, I will need to buy a car (I use the bus system now to reduce my carbon footprint-I have access to a car if I need to go off the bus route or if it is later than the bus runs, but generally I use the bus whenever possible).  When I buy my car it will be a hybrid so that I wont need to burn petroleum as much.

Climate Change

In my opinion climate change is a natural phenomena, a part of a cycle that the earth goes through.  I would argue that the impact of human activity has increased the momentum of this change and has put our world on a fast track to a much hotter climate.  NASA, whom I consider to be a reputable source for information on the topic agreed stating "Correlations between rising CO₂ levels and global surface temperatures suggest that our planet is on a one-way warming trend triggered by human activity. Indeed, studies by paleoclimatologists reveal that natural variability caused by changes in the Sun and volcanic eruptions can largely explain deviations in global temperature from 1000 AD until 1850 AD, near the beginning of the Industrial Era. After that, the best models require a human-induced greenhouse effect (National, 2013).

The article goes on to argue both sides and in the end doesn't conclude either way, but admits that there just isn't enough information from historical data to determine if and how much our activity impacts the climate.  It also states that computer models cannot be used successfully because computers can only analyze information that is inputted  without historical data, the computer models are inconclusive.   but we are undoubtedly encouraging this rapid change, how does the CO2  that we are pumping into the environment not have an impact on the atmosphere that protects us from the sun's harmful rays?  

The impact on the earth is evidenced by noticeable weather changes and effects on the land and water.  The Department of the Interior, another reliable source of information, stated that "The glaciers in Montana’s Glacier National Park are melting so quickly, they're expected to disappear in the next two decades. Rising seas are consuming the world’s first wildlife refuge – Florida’s Pelican Island – which President Teddy Roosevelt set aside in 1903....The impacts of climate change are forcing us to change how we manage resources. Climate change may dramatically affect water supplies in certain watersheds, impact coastal wetlands and barrier islands, cause relocation of and stress on wildlife, increase wildland fires, further spread invasive species, and more" (US, 2013).

The media seems to play a neutral card on the topic of climate change, they do not want to offend anyone, be insensitive, or appear to take sides. Some news organizations, the ones that advocate the issue, such as Climate Change News Digest, will always cite in the interest of human impact on climate change and possibly even create hype.  The New York Times  whom I would consider to be neutral stated "Global warming has become perhaps the most complicated issue facing world leaders. Warnings from the scientific community are becoming louder, as an increasing body of science points to rising dangers from the ongoing buildup of human-related greenhouse gases — produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and forests" (New, 2013).  Which shows some support for scientists who believe that humans have impact, but still stay somewhat neutral in the communication of their ideas, placing all of the information in the hands of the scientists.

This has little influence on my ideas, I believe that humans have a great effect on the environment and that we are fooling ourselves by saying that it is merely a cycle.  It has had altering effects on my lifestyle, I choose not to buy a car until I have to, I ride the bus in an effort to be green (not use fossil fuels or pump carbon into the environment), I recycle-even went into the city and got recycling buckets for my neighbors and asked them to join me in recycling, I have my plants strategically placed to catch the water from the sprinklers and from the rain off the roof of my home, I reuse the bags from grocery shopping in my garbage cans instead of throwing them away and buying tall kitchen bags-that saves by reusing and is cost effective too!

I think that my children and their children will need to use renewable fuels, we cannot continue to burn fossil fuels.  I wonder what effect that will eventually have on our earth, will it cause earthquakes because the lubricant is burned?  Will it cause a void and the earth collapse in areas that have been drained of the oil?  Will it become unbearably hot because we have drilled all of the coolant out of the earth?  I don't think that we can go on forever using oil, our children will need to be smarter about it and find a better way.  I also wonder what shape the land will be in, I don't think that we will be in a situation like the movie Waterworld, but I believe that we will have some land lost and the population will need to consider building upwards.


References

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2013). Science News:  Earth's Fidgeting Climate.  Retrieved from http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast20oct_1/

New York Times. (2013).  Science:  Global Warming & Climate Change.  Retrieved from http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html

US Department of the Interior. (2013). What we do:  Climate Change.  Retrieved from http://www.doi.gov/whatwedo/climate/index.cfm